unforum

[hunt4gold]

Promotion video for a website called VIRTUALTREASUREMAP.COM.

[faster]

My word this sucks.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Maybe we should set up a tickler to check this again, in the future.
Say, ten years or so?

[faster]

[OrangeForAHead]

A contest within a pixel-map advertisement company. It's like that contest where the company buried a car. Only this seems significantly lamer. Basically you will find the treasure if they start making some money (the treasure map's appearance is dependent on how many blocks other advertisers buy).

The "Big Money" opening was a big turnoff to me as a game-seeker, and so far they haven't promised any game, only fragments of a map. Still, many of us could probably solve the map before the average pixel ad surfer (really, who actually goes to those?)

To the advertiser, probably the poster - a game is about interactivity. You as a game designer should make more structure to progressively guide players and entertain them. Story is a big plus, as is [very relevant here] some separation from reality, some sense that you are playing a game, entering the magic circle. This right here will appeal to very few people, because, as the Perplex City went to show, the money is not our drive.

[konamouse]

So, how about some one edits the title of the first post (and thus this thread) to more accurately reflect what this "hunt4gold" really posted about (i.e. I can't see YT from work but from the preceeding comments, sure sounds like he came in here shilling)????

[Rogi Ocnorb]

Kona...
I would if I could.
Basically the meat and potatoes are at:
www.virtualtreasuremap.com
The YT video is of the burial of the treasure, at night, in the woods.
It was posted on January 29, 2007, so our post might not be a shill.

ETA: YT Comments

[hunt4gold]

reply to all

[Jas0n]

Woah - ouch - this reply was a major turn-off to me...

First, it's not very good taste to post your own trailhead and then respond... but yeah I can somewhat understand the need/desire to shill. Sometimes though you ought to find another way of getting the site out there to people and make it interesting to them so they tell people about it themselves rather than having it shoved down their throat.

Second, you're bragging a little too much... you have a 149 IQ and you're telling us you've spent so much time ensuring people can't solve it in a "phew" days... now I'm not sure how they spell "few" in various countries, but it caused me to doubt the 149 IQ.

Third, you're telling your potential customer base - the players - that they're not smart enough to figure out your puzzle. Now come on - you can think of more ways to convince them to motivate themselves than to bluntly say: "I didn't create the game where every sucker can find the answer"

Fourth, you do understand what this community seeks is interactivity. A game in which a story is told, characters interact with the community, and pieces of the "puzzle" come together in a meaningful manner so as to thoroughly entertain the audience while rewarding them.

Fifth, are you telling me that you buried a treasure which doesn't actually exist yet? umm... ok

Sixth, so this website is about you making money and not about you entertaining people. Yeah ok I'm not going to play a game with that mindset being bluntly thrown into my face. I mean yeah many games - such as Vanishing point or Perplex City have made the companies some good money, but they were entertaining... the players didn't have to surf through advertisements to find puzzle pieces. The players were pulled into them by either an intuitive story, or like Vanishing point - a few good videos... an established company being advertised for, and several exciting live events.

Lastly, what's the deal with blaming everyone for various hypothetical problems? I mean we're all slaves to ******** who are going to ... did I read it right? Kill every organism? --- and you intend to use the profits from this particular site to buy an island so you can be free to live in ignorance and "harmoney"... umm.. yeah ok that's really going to make a difference in life if you are sold on the idea that people are all slaves and that we're all going to eventually kill all the organisms on the world... why not try to make a difference? You might not succeed - probably won't fully succeed - but it's better than trying to isolate yourself and not affecting anything whatsoever.

Now I'm not saying that you're a bad guy or anything of that sort, what I am saying is that you ought to think through your posts before you make them and understand the audience of those posts to whom you are trying to sell yourself and website/game to.

Best of luck to you in the future though

[catherwood]

Re: reply to all

[Delusional]

Re: reply to all

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Re: reply to all

[Slyfingers]

The video looks like "The Blair Hidden Treasure Project," and I'm about as excited to see this as I was the original Blair Witch project- which was not at all. I have a feeling that this, just like the movie, would be much better done if it only lasted 25 minutes, but dragging it out will make it lose whatever it had in the first place. I wish the owner/promoter luck, but just a hint. If you are going to push your 142 IQ, you might want to use 2-3 of those IQ points to run a spellcheck. ("phew","tread", etc.) On another note, I find your take on the business model a bit offensive. So not only do you want us to advertise your website for you to get you page hits, you want us to redo your marketing materials (a la the video) as well? The smarmy "challenge" thrown out as well, I find that just... bad. And now, I'm not going to waste any more time on this.

I wish you good luck OP- you are going to need it. (Especially considering your forum only has 2 posts, 1 from you! I can see why you are looking for more page hits if that is the case...)

[webmaster]

word from webmaster virtualtreasuremap.com

[Rogi Ocnorb]

I wonder...
Is it even worth checking comparing IP Addresses on the posts in this thread?